'42' shows why Robinson still matters

Sunday, April 14, 2013

photo Chadwick Boseman, center, as Jackie Robinson in "42."

Did You Know?

During Jackie Robinson's time on the team, the Brooklyn Dodgers won the National League pennant six times - 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956 - but only won the World Series in 1955. Each time they played the New York Yankees in the Series.

photo Chadwick Boseman, left, and director Brian Helgeland on the set at Engel Stadium.
photo Chadwick Boseman, left, as Jackie Robinson and Harrison Ford, as Branch Rickey in "42."
photo Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, left, and Andre Holland as sportswriter Wendell Smith in a scene from "42."

By Christy Lemire

There's a scene in "42" in which Jackie Robinson endures intolerably cruel racial slurs from the Philadelphia Phillies' manager.

It's early in the 1947 season. Each time the Brooklyn Dodgers' first baseman comes up to bat, manager Ben Chapman emerges from the dugout, stands on the field and taunts him with increasingly personal and vitriolic attacks. It's a visible struggle, but No. 42 maintains his composure before a crowd of thousands.

As a viewer, it's uncomfortable to watch - although as writer-director Brian Helgeland points out, "if anything, the language we have in that scene was cleaned up from what it was."

Such hatred may seem archaic, an ugly episode in our nation's history that we'd rather forget. But remembering Robinson's accomplishments is more important than ever, say people involved with "42" and baseball historians alike. And because he was such an inspiring cultural figure, it's more important than ever to get his story right.

Helgeland, an Oscar winner for his "L.A. Confidential" screenplay who previously directed "Payback" and "A Knight's Tale," says he felt "an enormous amount of pressure" to be faithful to Robinson's story, both because of his significance and because his life had been written about so extensively. That included recreating games right from the box scores. So when Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) homers during a crucial pennant-race game off a pitcher who'd dinged him earlier in the year, it's a dramatic moment, but it also actually happened.

"It's always a tricky thing because it's a movie, and even in this movie we're trying to tell two years in two hours," says Helgeland. "You're obviously not seeing every moment, but the discipline I applied to the script was trying to make sure every moment was documented."

Helgeland began working on the film two years ago, with the blessing of Robinson's widow, Rachel, because he felt Robinson "deserves a great, big movie." Robinson himself starred in the 1950 biography "The Jackie Robinson Story," which also details how Brooklyn Dodgers president and general manager Branch Rickey (played here by a feisty Harrison Ford) had the courage to sign the fleet-footed Negro League player, despite receiving discouragement from around the league and death threats from fans.

"People would say to me, 'You're making another Jackie Robinson movie?' and I'd say, 'What was the other one you saw?'" Helgeland says. "(Racism is) always going to be a relevant thing. It's not a thing that's ever going to be eradicated. Society has to stay on guard about it and not get complacent about it."

Still, it's a challenge to depict the life of someone who was so inspirational without deifying him. In "42," Robinson shows grace in the face of nearly incessant bigotry. That's why Rickey chooses him of all the talented black baseball players at the time: He had the skills, but he also had the strength not to fight back.

"He would get his revenge on the base paths a little, but he didn't shy away from contact when he was barreling into the catcher, those kinds of things," Helgeland says.

"You want to humanize him. The romance with the wife (played by Nicole Beharie) does that. The fact that he doesn't quite get along with (journalist and guide) Wendell Smith does that, which I think was the case in real life," he says. "You kind of need to go for this vibe: It's the actor and the director trying to have a feel for what feels real and right in the moment."

Baseball historian Howard Bryant, author and senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine, says he understands that some changes occur in making a film with historical origins, as was the widely publicized case with several 2012 Oscar contenders, including best picture "Argo." But he says Hollywood can't take liberties with stories like Robinson's.

"It would lose its credibility for me. I would lose respect for it if it were a Hollywood show," says Bryant. "We have a special talent in this country for scrubbing history, and I'm hoping that's not what happens to a story like Jackie Robinson's."